IRS Letter Ruling: Even Nonprofits Must Issue 1099s for Payments Over $600

The IRS letter ruling didn’t specify which tribe requested the ruling; the IRS simply referenced a “tribe.” The tribe held a powwow each year, at which it held dance and drum contests and awarded cash prizes. Sometimes, those prizes exceeded $600 (the reporting threshold until 2026). The question was: does the tribe need to issue a 1099-MISC (box 3) for the prizes that were $600 or more? The tribe said it did not, and made three arguments to the IRS: The tribe is not subject to income…